Past exam of the theoretical physics major option course of the University of Oxford / 2018 / 1 / a / Solution

The Euler-Lagrange equation for the real scalar field givesThus the conjugate momentum and Hamiltonian density areThe spatial Fourier transform reduces the Klein-Gordon equation to ${\ddot{\varphi }}_{\mathbf{p}}+{\omega }_{\mathbf{p}}^2{\varphi }_{\mathbf{p}}=0$, with positive frequency ${\omega }_{\mathbf{p}}=\sqrt{{\mathbf{p}}^2+m^2}$. Hence a general real solution is the mode expansion of a free fieldThe two coefficients are complex conjugates because the field is real. Each pair of initial data $\varphi (0,\mathbf{x}),\pi (0,\mathbf{x})$ fixes these coefficients. The normalization anticipates canonical quantization and the relativistic normalization of one-particle states.